Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) affirmed that it is collaborating with the Law and Human Rights Ministry to address the incident of alleged data leak of 34 million citizens' passports.

The agency is also coordinating with other relevant stakeholders, such as the Communication and Informatics Ministry's National Data Center, directorate of governmental informatics application services, as well as the Law and Human Rights Ministry's Computer Security Incident Response Team, data and information center, and Directorate General of Immigration.

"To date, the technical unit of BSSN and technical unit of the Law and Human Rights Ministry are currently assisting with the (progress in) validation and investigation of the alleged incident of citizens' passports' data leak," spokesperson of BSSN Ariandi Putra noted in a statement.

The agency and the ministry also pursue other mitigation measures to tackle the risks in order to ensure that the data remains safe, and the services can be carried out as per usual, he remarked.

He also noted that the agency appealed to electronic system providers (PSE) and others to improve their data security systems, so they would not be compromised by cyberattacks.

"The BSSN appealed to all electronic system providers, personal data controllers, and personal data subjects to always improve the security of personal data and electronic systems being operated," Putra remarked.

The Communication and Informatics Ministry had recently issued a statement regarding proceedings on alleged data leak of 34 million citizens' passports.

The director general of public information and communication at the ministry, Usman Kansong, noted that there was a difference in the data structure between the one at the National Data Center as compared to data that was allegedly leaked.

The investigation kicked off after a cybersecurity practitioner, Teguh Aprianto, tweeted from @segcron that the data of 34 million citizens' passports had been hacked.

Aprianto stated that the information contained in the leaked data ranged from the passport registration number, valid date, full name, to date of birth as well as sex, and the data batch was sold for US$10 thousand.

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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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